Canadian soldiers fought Taliban in Kabul attack

OTTAWA — Canadian military trainers helped defend a NATO compound in Kabul last week when Taliban insurgents launched a dramatic attack against the U.S. Embassy and surrounding neighbourhood that killed 16 Afghans and wounded dozens more.

This revelation, combined with assertions from a senior military official on Thursday that the Canadian Forces considers the Afghan capital an “extremely violent” environment, has raised fresh questions about the risks Canadian soldiers are facing in what was originally billed a low-risk, “behind the wire” training mission.

According to a Defence Department spokesman, a small number of Canadian soldiers tasked with training Afghan counterparts were arriving at NATO headquarters in Kabul when the camp was attacked by insurgents.

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Capt. Mark Peebles said that during the ensuing battle, the Canadians helped Afghan security personnel and other NATO forces beat back the attack, including returning fire against insurgents in a building located nearby.

Capt. Peebles said the incident was not publicly announced because no Canadians were hurt during the fight, and at no time did they leave the building as the operation was being managed by Afghan forces and the Canadians were only in a support role.

After six years of intense fighting in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the Canadian mission shifted to a training role in July, primarily focused in Kabul but with smaller contingents in two other cities. The mission is slated to run until 2014.

In testimony to the defence committee on Thursday, Brig.-Gen. Craig King said there are currently 600 Canadian military trainers in the country, with that number expected to reach 950 by November. Canada is the second-largest contributor to the NATO-led training mission after the U.S., he said.

When asked about the threats faced by the trainers, Brig.-Gen. King said the number of violent attacks in Kabul has dropped from a high in 2010, but acknowledged the Canadians are operating in an “extremely violent” environment.

“We have never said that Kabul is a low-risk environment,” Brig.-Gen. King said. “Kabul remains high risk. There is a determined enemy up there that is capable of mounting the kind of things that you saw.”

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially broached the idea of transitioning Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar to a training mission in Kabul last November, he said: “It cannot involve any more combat.”

In April, during the election campaign, the prime minister said Canadian military trainers would still face risks in the Afghan capital, but “obviously there is significantly less risk to our military personnel there.”

And in officially announcing the training mission in May, the government emphasized Canadian soldiers would be “behind the wire.”

A spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay said that although the military mission is over, “Afghanistan remains a volatile country with an active insurgency.”

“It is for this reason that Canada extended its support,” Josh Zanin said, “to ensure that the Afghan National Security Forces have the skills and training needed to protect Afghans as they continue to build towards a prosperous and secure future.”

But NDP defence critic Jack Harris questioned why the government and military didn’t tell Canadians that their soldiers were engaged in combat when the attack occurred.

“That’s something we ought to have heard about,” he said, “because it certainly reflects what’s happening in Afghanistan and what risks our troops are being put to by continuing in the mission for a further three years.”

A few days before the Kabul attack, an insurgent truck bomb struck a NATO outpost in nearby Wardak province, killing four civilians and injuring 77 American soldiers.

During his testimony, Brig.-Gen. King said the Canadian trainers in Kabul were spread out over around a dozen locations. Mr. Harris said this is just one example of Canadian troops being put at unnecessary risk.

“We were all told happening inside the wire. The prime minister said that. The minister of defence has said that,” Mr. Harris said. “They’re all over the place and that there’d be a lot of transport involved.”

Liberal defence critic John McKay, whose party has supported the training mission, said Canadian soldiers can’t remain behind the wire all the time. However, he said if there are more incidents like that of Sept. 13, that would be cause for concern.

In addition to the 600 Canadian military trainers in Kabul, Canada still has about 1,300 soldiers in Kandahar charged with closing down the base, a process that is expected to wrap up by December.

Brig.-Gen. King said a Canadian logistics base officially opened in Kuwait on Thursday, and sensitive weapons and equipment will be flown there from Kandahar before continuing on to Canada. Non-sensitive equipment such as generators are being transported by military contractors overland through Pakistan.